Australian Prayer campaign for the success of the Family Synod

A day of prayer and fasting for the success of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family has been proposed by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference for Friday 10 October 2014. This proposal is part of a prayer campaign for the success of the Synod and begins with the distribution of prayer cards at parish masses on Sunday 5 October, the opening day of the Synod.

This will be the III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops run in Rome through to Sunday 19 October. It will consider the topic The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.
Chairman of the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life, Bishop Eugene Hurley of Darwin, said this day of prayer and fasting is an ideal way for parish communities, institutes of consecrated life, associations and movements in Australia to pray for the success of the Synod.

The Pontifical Council for the Family states “It is evident that the social and spiritual crisis of today’s world has an impact on family life and creates a situation of genuine pastoral urgency, which justifies the convocation of an Extraordinary General Assembly.

“The family is seen in an ideal embrace between the Extraordinary Synod of October 2014 and the General Synod of 2015. This is an original approach that involves and calls on people and entities in the Church and beyond. In the choice of the family, with its new challenges and great resources, the Church breathes deeply, for herself and for the whole of humanity.”

The Holy Father himself will lead a prayer vigil on the eve of the Synod, 4th October, in St Peter’s Square. He has called on all the faithful around the world to pray for the success of the Synod.

Prayer cards to support the Extraordinary Synod of the Family have been distributed to all parishes.